Limosa and Airmedic plan to speed medevac response time and reduce emissions.
Two Québec, Canada-based companies, Limosa and Airmedic, have announced a partnership to develop an electric VTOL medevac aircraft that combines the benefits of helicopters and fixed wing aircraft for this time critical mission profile. The aircraft, made by Limosa, is called Limomedic and will be operated by medevac service provider Airmedic for emergency services in Québec. Canada has many isolated communities which are difficult to access with fixed wing aircraft and an electric VTOL solution with fixed wing speed could save lives in remote areas.
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Episode Transcript:
Electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft represent the hottest sector in clean aviation today, with multiple startups worldwide racing to build prototypes, and major global airframers like Boeing and Airbus both developing aircraft themselves and investing in innovative technologies.
The use case for EVTOL has been assumed to be urban air taxi service, but there are other more important possibilities. Québec, Canada-based EVTOL startup Limosa has announced a partnership with a Québec-based medical evacuation air service, Airmedic, to develop an electric air ambulance using Limosa’s multiple fan, distributed lift technology.
Airmedic currently operates a fleet of Airbus helicopters and Pilatus fixed wing aircraft. Medevac is relatively simple in urban areas, with helicopters providing adequate vertical lift and speed for the short distances to nearby hospital helipads. For longer distances, turboprop fixed wing aircraft are ideal, assuming the casualty can be quickly transported from incident scene to runway and then from arrival airport to a medical facility.
For more remote areas, such as northern Québec, specialized short takeoff and landing fixed wing aircraft work, but helicopters are the best solution to retrieve the casualty—but at the price of short range and slow airspeed to a hospital. Transferring the casualty from helicopter to fixed wing aircraft has its own logistical problems, as well as delays which may be life-threatening.
The Limosa EVTOL, called Limomedic, offers considerable translational lift due to very high aspect ratio fixed wings, allowing the best of both worlds: access to remote or difficult locations to retrieve the casualty, and quick transport to a hospital already equipped for helicopter operations.
The specifications will be challenging. The minimal configuration will require a pilot and EMT or other medically trained attendant, as well as the weight of the patient, structure and supplementary medical equipment. The airframe itself will require access doors to facilitate loading and unloading of the patient, requiring doors considerably larger than conventional passenger ingress/egress openings.
It’s a structural consideration that suggests a unique airframe for air ambulance service. This has been the pattern for purpose-built medevac helicopters, such as the popular Eurocopter EC135.
While Airmedic notes the low CO2 footprint of the project, significantly lower maintenance and operating costs compared to conventional helicopters are possible with electric VTOL technology, and any airframe designed to handle medical evacuation could be useful in cargo carrying operations, too.
Specifications of the medical variant were not released, but the passenger carrying LimoConnect aircraft under development is anticipated to fly at a 7,000 pounds gross weight with seven passengers, with a 200-mile range and a 200-mph cruise speed.
And when? Both companies expect to be flying operational aircraft in 2028.